§ Statement of Purpose

The View from 1776 presents a framework to understand present-day issues from the viewpoint of the colonists who fought for American independence in 1776 and wrote the Constitution in 1787. Knowing and preserving those understandings, what might be called the unwritten constitution of our nation, is vital to preserving constitutional government. Without them, the bare words of the Constitution are just a Rorschach ink-blot that politicians, educators, and judges can interpret to mean anything they wish.

"We have no government armed with the power capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and true religion. Our constitution is made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams, to the Officers of the First Brigade, Third Division, Massachusetts Militia, October 11, 1798.

The Fed expanded this program on March 18, of last year, to buy $1.25 trillion in mortgage securities, along with $200 billion in debt of Fannie and Freddie and up to $300 billion in long-term Treasury debt. The expansion fueled the second leg of the credit rally, which hasn’t stopped yet.

Fed officials wouldn’t comment on whether they intended this secondary effect when designing their asset-purchase program. But they have suggested in speeches that it was a predictable outcome.

“With lower prospective returns on Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities, investors would naturally bid up the prices of other investments, including riskier assets such as corporate bonds and equities,” Brian Sack, head of open-market operations at the New York Fed, said in a speech in early December last year.

The Fed added to the buying pressure in December 2008 by cutting its target for the federal-funds rate